The Cerne Abbas Giant: Dr Mike Allen

Although the Cerne Abbas Giant lies in the heart of the Dorset countryside, many of the mysteries of him have been solved here in the Wylye Valley by Codford-based archaeologist Mike Allen, with the National Trust archaeologists at Tisbury. Working with the National Trust’s archaeologist Martin Papworth, much of the research was masterminded here. The design of the 2020 excavations to date the Cerne Giant lead by the National Trust, the scientific analysis conducted on the soils and snails from those excavations, and the research, reporting and writing was undertaken in Mike Allen’s scientific archaeology laboratory in Codford. Archaeology involves fieldwork, careful recording and cataloguing laboratory science, library research, deductive thinking and imagination … a combination of new results are now just coming to light, and the new book reveals all.

Questions:

When was he inscribed on the very steep chalk hillside? Why was he there, who put him there, why … and if he is older than 17 th century why is the first record of him not until 1694? Is there just one Cerne Giant? Has he always looked like today?

The Giant stands on the Dorset Down proudly naked, 55m high, club held aloft in right hand and is left outstretched as though it had cloak (?or lion skin) draped over it. He’s naked with eyes, mouth, nipple and ribs depicted and famously a 7.2m (23½ ft) long phallus (he once had a navel but in 1908 over zealous or mischievous cleaning of the Giant joined the two together increasing his manhood by 4.2m (7’10’’))! Today he is a white figure with fine chalk rubble packed into trenches up to 60cm (2ft) deep.

National Trust test pits in 2020

Answering questions of when, why and who, and providing narratives of a sites history requires not only an archaeological dig, but the careful, considered and scientific analysis of the soils, the data and the ideas. The National Trust dug four small test pits into the Giant in 2020; into the soles of each foot, and the crooks of each elbow. They found no finds or artefacts with which to date the Giant, but archaeological science would come to the rescue.

How old is the Giant, 300 years or 3000 years?

Archaeologist are good at dating sites, … but not the Cerne Abbas Giant. Archaeologists and historians couldn’t even decide if he was prehistoric (2½ thousand years old) or historic and just 300 years old. Was he prehistoric like the Iron Age Uffington white horse leaping over the Downs in Oxfordshire?, or 16 th century AD like the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex? The National Trusts 5 days of the excavations of 4 small test pits in 2020 enabled scientific samples to be taken to date the sediments from old scoops of the Giant and from sediments washed against him. These samples were for OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) which measured the last time some of the silt grains saw light.

Over 25 years ago archaeologists and historians debated his age but came to no firm conclusions. Arguments ranged from late prehistoric (Iron Age), to a Roman image of Hercules or other classical gods, or was it the locals pillorying the lord of the manor and local MP Lord Holles (1599-1680), or even mocking Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) in the seventeenth century? Prehistoric or post-medieval (17 th century), what a farce!

A date with Giant

Dating the Giant is difficult – there are none of the usual finds of pottery, tools, and objects with which to date him, nor even charcoal to radiocarbon date. So Mike drafted in scientists from Gloucestershire university (Professor Phil Toms) to date the last time the quartz (sand grains) in the soil saw sunlight and were buried (optically stimulated luminescence, or OSL to the archaeologists). A technique not often used as it expensive (several £1000 a go) and difficult, it also requires an understanding of soils and sediments – of which Mike is an expert. The National Trust wished to have the date of the Giant by July 2020 to celebrate 100 years since the Trust were gifted the Giant (from the Pitt Rivers family). So excavation led by the National Trust was in March 2020, so the results would be ready in July. But Covid got in the way and put a stop to the celebration. With the dating samples locked in the Gloucestershire university lab, Mike continued to work though Covid in his own bespoke purpose-built archaeological science lab in Codford.

Snails provide the answer

The snails in your garden are big (the garden or ‘Roman’ snail, and banded snails are the largest) but did you know there are about 70 other species; many of them just millimetres in size. Some live in woodland, and shady places on bare dark earth (closed woodland) or in leaf litter (open woodland), or in long damp (ungrazed) grass, or short grazed and tramped grass or in broken tilled soils. By sifting out the microscopic snail shells from carefully taken soils samples onto sieves to 0.5mm ad then examining then under a microscope in the lab we can pull out the smashed fragments of snail shells 1000s of years old. This allows us to look at the past and prehistoric land-use and landscape (as Mike has done for the Stonehenge area, and is depicted in the landscape video in the Visitor Centre). Most of the 118 species of land snail and slug came to the England after the last glaciation, however, some were brought here by the Romans to eat (the garden snail and the now protected rare Apple or Roman snail), and others came in straw and hay used to package goods shipped across the Channel from the continent from medieval times. If we find any of these, then our soil sample is Roman and later, or early medieval and later. Their presence alone could solve 100s of years of debate. Indeed one species was a Roman introduction and at least two were early medieval or later. So he was not prehistoric, and he was not Roman! When the scientific OSL dates came in they showed he was late 10 th century (Saxon)! About the time the Saxon Abbey in Cerne was re-founded (AD 987)! Could this really be true? A naked erect man on the hillside next to and of the same data as, the abbey?

Where did he go for 700 years?

Although late Saxon the first record of him is 1694, over 700 years later. Where did he go for nearly a millennia? The road past Cerne was travelled by many famous writers, historians, antiquarians, archaeologists, men of the cloth and of letters – if he was there they would have noted him. Again the snails have the answer! Weeks of careful scientific analysis in Mike’s Codford lab showed that the Giant was installed in short grazed grassland (like today) but soon afterwards he was allowed to grow over with long ungrazed grass and was hidden from view and forgotten for centuries!

How many Giants are there … I can only see one? Did he always look like today?

Careful analysis in the field and re-examination of the National Trust excavation records, showed that there was not one Giant but two, or even three! But all marking out the same figure. The first a shallow broad trench cutting through the thin turf exposed the chalk for a white Giant. Then as he was forgotten soil washed down the steep slope against the chalked Giant, building up in particular at his elbows and soles of his feet. He was then recut as a 2ft deep trenched outline and seen as a brown Giant, and was maintained as such from the 17th to 20th centuries. During a period of major restoration the trenches emptied out and filled with chalk rubble to make the Giant we see today! Like the other chalk figures of Westbury, and Uffington white horses. Although he’s been on the hillside for over 1000 years, he’s only been the white Giant we see today for less than … come to the lecture to find out!

Who is the Giant?

Who was the Giant? Since 18 th century antiquarians and archaeologists have wondered who the Giant was. With club and cloak draped over is outstretched arm the most popular suggestion was the Roman god Hercules. Others Classical gods have been suggested such a Mars, Suecellos, and Nodens or the horned Cernunnos a Gaulish god of hunting and healing. Others have been the mystical beast the Dorset Ooser (a horned bull-masked man who capers around Dorsett streets with a band of Morris med, or pillory of Cromwell or even a local 17 th century MP (Lord Holles) or even of the Dorset Clubmen who were active in the Civil War.

But know we think he was someone else. A hermit who lived on the Dorset hillside … all will be revealed in the Codford Woolstore lecture (17 th September) and in the new book … after which I will get our website editors to revise this piece and add the summary as to why he’s on this remote hillside.

These are just a few of the many secrets we have unveiled though archaeological science, soils and snails and our research.

Mike has been involved with research on the Giant since 1984 when member of English Heritage’s Ancient Monuments Lab surveyed him. Before being involved with the National Trust 2020 dig he did fieldwork in 2002, and after the Trusts work did further research, fieldwork and geophysical survey in 2023 and even earlier this year 2024!

You can find the answers to some of the points here in Mikes talk about the Giant at the at the Codford Woolstore theatre on Tuesday 17 th September where you can discuss the ideas and research with Mike at the lecture or in the bar, where you can also buy the new book Mike has written with a number of other archaeologists and experts … it includes chapters on the Uffington white horse, Wiltshire white horses, Wilmington Long Man in Sussex and other new ideas and research (this will be the first time they are on public sale) [£19 cash or cheque only].

Tickets for the talk (a Codford Local History Society event) are available from https://www.thewoolstoretheatre.co.uk/events/ tickets are £7: most of the profits will go to charity split between Parkinson’s UK and Wiltshire Air Ambulance, the latter in honour of Rob Mayall who died in a car accident on the A36 at the junction to Codford in July 2015.